Joe Yerdon

The news of Maxim Afinogenov leaving the NHL to sign a five-year deal with SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL was met with a resounding, “meh” from a lot of fans in the hockey world. It was the case of another talented player who had a hard time finding instant interest from NHL teams getting…

While the buzz around signing Mike Modano in Detroit has appropriately died down, attention now turns to other needs in the Motor City. While they’re still working on a contract for restricted free agent Justin Abdelkader, the Wings are in the market for another experienced defenseman to play on the third pairing with Jonathan Ericsson.…

On Friday, we told you about how Teemu Selanne told a Finnish magazine that he was looking forward to coming back to the NHL and the Anaheim Ducks for one more year. Part of that discussion was about how he was working on bringing back his old friend Paul Kariya with him to play in…

If you haven’t noticed, this summer has been pretty tough on Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman. After the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in June, it wasn’t long after that that the dismantling of a championship team began. Their moves have been high profile and roundly criticized by many people, questioning Bowman’s ability to keep a…

About a week ago I was struck with an idea to investigate how goalies who had a heavy workload during the regular season fared in the playoffs. After all, with the new trend going towards inexpensive goalies, it’s worth taking a look at goalies in general seeing as how those inexpensive goalies that have been…

If you’ve been asleep the last few weeks, you might not know that Cristobal Huet’s future with the Chicago Blackhawks is in a bit of trouble. After the team walked away from Antti Niemi’s $2.75 million arbitration award and signed free agent goalie Marty Turco, the handwriting was on the wall. Huet’s future as an…

Are you ready for your daily dose of Koval-talk? We knew you were. As was expected today, there was no decision in the Ilya Kovalchuk contract grievance. While it was possible arbitrator Richard Bloch could’ve handed down a decision today, the chances of that happening were pretty slim. There’s a possibility that a decision could…

Tell us if you saw this one coming at all. Former Maple Leafs, Hurricanes and Senators goalie Martin Gerber is returning to North American after a year in the KHL to play with the Edmonton Oilers. Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos provides the details of the signing via Twitter. Oilers sign Martin Gerber 1 year / 2-way contract.…

If you’ve been wondering what will happen with Ducks star and Finnish legend Teemu Selanne, it appears that you can stop wondering right away and prepare for at least one more season of the Finnish Flash. TSN, via Finnish magazine Sport Report, tells us that Selanne will be coming back to the NHL for at…

On a day where the Red Wings were beyond excited to introduce Mike Modano as the newest member of the Detroit Red Wings, you had to figure that somewhere a story about his signing with one of the Dallas Stars’ biggest rivals was going to pop up discussing the reasons for doing so. Having that…

While the Detroit Red Wings were busy introducing Mike Modano, the Minnesota Wild were busy moving on to their Plan “B” in the hunt for an experienced centerman, signing three-time Stanley Cup winner John Madden to a one-year deal. Madden won his third Cup last season with the Chicago Blackhawks and his veteran presence will…

In an effort to help get fans in Pittsburgh excited about the upcoming season and opening of their new CONSOL Energy Center, the Penguins have announced the Penguins All-Time team. As you might expect, the team is loaded with players from their back-to-back Stanley Cup teams of the early 1990s. Mario Lemieux Ron Francis Jaromir…

The Ottawa Senators are digging into American coaches to find the guy they want to teach their youth. The Sens announced that they’ve hired Kurt Kleinendorst to be the head coach of their AHL team in Binghamton. Some of you might recall Kleinendorst from his days as an assistant to Larry Robinson in New Jersey.…

Each August, the NHL holds a research and development camp in which former coaches and players team up together to test out potential new rules and settings to use in the NHL. What’s fun about this way of doing things is you have people who are highly experienced in the ways of the game (Dave…

If you’re an NHL GM and were hoping you might get to take an inexpensive flier out on Maxim Afinogenov this season, your luck just ran out. Russian newspaper SovSport is reporting this morning that Afinogenov has signed with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL on a five-year contract (link is translated Russian). In there,…

It’s been over a week since now former Thrashers forward Clarke MacArthur had his seemingly bizarre and oddly inflated arbitration award for $2.4 million walked away from by Atlanta making him an unrestricted free agent. We say bizarre because a player scoring 16 goals getting a $1 million raise seems rather out of place against…

The other day we mentioned for you that Peter Forsberg (you remember him don’t you?) was looking to get healthy once again and trying to play for his Swedish team MoDo. We speculated a little bit about what that would do for the annual rumors of Forsberg returning to North America and giving the NHL…

The Chicago Blackhawks are finding ways to make sure they can keep some players from last season’s Stanley Cup championship team. NHL salary-guru site Cap Geek is reporting that part-time defenseman Jordan Hendry will re-sign with the the Blackhawks for one year at $600,000. Should that pan out to be the case, this gives the…

The arguments have been said and heard in the Ilya Kovalchuk contract grievance hearing and both the NHL and Kovalchuk await the decision by systems arbitrator Richard Bloch, our minds turn to just what will happen next. Whether Bloch decides to side with Ilya Kovalchuk, his agent Jay Grossman, and the New Jersey Devils or…

Word comes today from the Star-Tribune’s Michael Russo that free agent defenseman Willie Mitchell has been cleared to play after suffering a concussion at the hands of Penguins star Evgeni Malkin last season. While that’s important news to teams looking for veteran defensive help (The Sharks, Red Wings and Capitals have been rumored to have…

The San Jose Sharks continue to fill out their own depth and taking care of restricted free agent defenseman Derek Joslin, re-signing him to a one-year deal. Joslin helps provide the now Rob Blake-less Sharks with some more firm depth on the blue line and perhaps Joslin will be able to avoid the ever-uncomfortable shuttle…

The life of a potential phenom in the NHL can have its ups and downs. The ups come when you’re an exceptional talent like Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin and can have the world at your feet because you’re just that talented. The downs come when you’re exceptionally talented player who struggles within a rigid…

While we’ve got the Winter Classic to get excited about here in the United States, Canada is getting their own outdoor game once again this year with the resuming of the Heritage Classic. Back in 2003, Edmonton and Montreal played an outdoor game in November at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. This time around, Montreal will…

The Bruins have found the man to replace Craig Ramsay as assistant coach, hiring former Montreal assistant coach Doug Jarvis to take the job. Jarvis is filling a role that he’s familiar with as he was Claude Julien’s assistant in Montreal during the 2005-2006 season. That year, Julien was replaced by Bob Gainey halfway through…

When a restricted free agent is slow in working out a contract with their team in the NHL, this is about the time of year where regular hockey fans will start to get a little bit antsy to get something done. Picture then, if you will, what it’s like for fans of the Montreal Canadiens…